JACKSONVILLE, FL. State inspectors ordered Ya Habibi Slice & Spice at 6271 St. Augustine Road closed on October 1, 2026, after finding live roach activity inside the restaurant, triggering an emergency shutdown that gave the owner until the following morning to get the facility back into compliance.
The closure was not the restaurant's first.
What Inspectors Found
Ya Habibi Slice & Spice: Recent Inspection Pattern
The October 1 inspection produced nine high-severity violations and four intermediate violations, the worst single-day tally the facility has recorded in recent years. Roach activity was the violation that triggered the emergency order, a finding serious enough under state law to require immediate closure without a warning period.
The facility was ordered vacated by October 2. Records show a follow-up inspection was completed that same morning, and the restaurant cleared it with zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, allowing it to reopen.
The Violations
Live roaches inside a food service operation represent one of the most acute health hazards an inspector can document. Unlike a temperature violation or a paperwork gap, active pest activity is not something a manager can correct by adjusting a dial or signing a form.
Roaches travel between sewage, garbage, and food preparation surfaces. They carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli, depositing contamination on surfaces, equipment, and food that customers will eat. A single live roach in a kitchen is treated by state inspectors as evidence of an infestation, not an isolated incident, because roaches are nocturnal and rarely visible during daytime inspections unless the population is substantial.
Nine high-severity violations in a single visit is a significant count. High-severity violations are the category the state reserves for conditions most directly linked to foodborne illness risk. Four intermediate violations on top of that total suggest the problems on October 1 were not confined to one area or one issue.
What This Means
Florida's emergency closure authority exists specifically for situations where the risk to customers eating at a facility is immediate, not theoretical. Roach activity clears that threshold.
When inspectors document live roaches, the concern is not just what customers might see. It is what has already happened to the food, the prep surfaces, and the equipment before anyone walked through the door. Contamination from pest activity is not visible and cannot be reversed by removing the roaches. It requires a full sanitization of every surface the pests may have contacted.
The fact that Ya Habibi cleared the follow-up inspection within hours of the closure order suggests the sanitization work was completed quickly. But the speed of the turnaround does not undo what the October 1 inspection documented, and it does not answer how long the roach activity had been present before inspectors arrived.
The Longer Record
Ya Habibi Slice & Spice has 29 inspections on record and 183 total violations documented across its history at this location. That is not the profile of a facility that has struggled with one bad stretch.
The October 2026 closure is the second emergency closure in the facility's record. The first preceded it at some point in the restaurant's operating history, meaning state inspectors have now twice found conditions serious enough to order customers and staff out of the building.
The inspection record from the past two years shows high-severity violations appearing in nearly every visit. The October 2024 inspection produced six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The May and November 2025 inspections each produced two high-severity violations. The March 2026 inspection added one more. None of those visits resulted in a closure, but each one documented conditions the state considers directly linked to illness risk.
The two inspections that came back clean, November 13, 2025, and the follow-up on October 2, 2026, show the facility can meet state standards. The question the cumulative record raises is why high-severity violations have continued to appear across so many routine visits in between.
The restaurant had cleared its follow-up inspection and was permitted to reopen as of the morning of October 2. Whether it was open for business to customers at that point, the records do not confirm.
